Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death for men in the U.S. It is estimated that, in 2015, approximately 220,800 new cases of PCa will be diagnosed and 27,540 deaths will result from PCa. African Americans have the highest incidence of PCa in the world, with an annual average of 229 per 100,000 men for the period of 2006-2010, which represents about two-fold more than Caucasian Americans. PCa is also the leading cancer in terms of incidence and mortality in men from Africa and the Caribbean. Consequently, African ancestry is a very important risk factor.
PCa is a heterogeneous disease, with multiple risks factors. The specific reasons for poor outcomes from PCa in males of African ancestry (MoAA) when compared to Caucasian males (CM) are not understood. However, it is widely believed that the causes of PCa disparities are complex and multifaceted. Two potential reasons are frequently proposed to explain this profound disparity in PCa: (1) MoAA present more often than CM with advanced incurable PCa due to more limited access to health care; (2) PCa is biologically more aggressive in MoAA than CM, and can be attributed to environmental and/or genetic risk factors.
The 8q24 human chromosomal region is one of the most important susceptibility genetic loci for PCa. Several studies have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in chromosome 8q24 as susceptibility markers for PCa. The 8q24 chromosomal region has only one protein-coding gene, the well-known MYC oncogene implicated in different cancers, including PCa. However, it also has a number of non-protein coding genes (such as PVT1) whose functional roles have not been thoroughly investigated yet.
In recent years, non-protein coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have received special attention because they have been identified in many studies as being important in cancer biology. Substantial progress has been made in understanding the role of small non-coding RNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) in the development and progression of cancers. However, studying the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cancers appears to be more complicated. LncRNAs are defined as endogenous cellular RNAs that have a size of more than 200 nucleotides and that do not possess an extended open reading frame.
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